Pryor Mountain Area, Montana

[ttora4runner]

This was kind of an unplanned adventure. My original plan for Saturday was to venture up though the Bighorn National Recreation Area to the ghost towns/sites of Lockhart, Ewing and Hillsboro but because of the government shut down the road leading in was closed. I had a feeling that it might be before the trip but I decided to take a chance anyways. The country road that skirts around the border of the park was washed out about ¾ of the way and is only suitable for foot traffic now.

So with not really knowing what to do I went ahead and headed off in the Pyror Mountain Area to do a bit of exploring.

View from Hwy 14A before dropping down into Lovell Wyoming.


Washout on County Road 16.





The view from Sykes Ridge Road.







View of Bighorn Lake.



Wild horses spotted along the way.



Sykes Ridge - the road at the bottom is the route I took which is a part of a loop that connects back to the main trail.



More wild horses.







View from 'Burnt Timber Ridge'.









Wilderness Study Area. You can see where the old road was before the area was closed off.



View of 'Big Pryor' Mountain.





View along the road before heading on back.



Old tractor at the turnoff to 'Burnt Timber'.











When I got home I looked up the area I was travelling in because I didn’t have a map of the area and lol and behold the two roads I took loop together. I’ll have to try and head back to make the loop before leaving Wyoming in a couple months.

 

[roverrocks]

Very, very nice. Great photos. Thanks for posting.

 

[FullTankHank]

Looks like it was a fun trip. I love those wide angle shots:26_7_2:

 

[ttora4runner]

Some additional photo's from last weekends mountain bike trip up 'Burnt Timber Ridge Road' - these are just past the point that I turned around last time.













The trail past this point was pretty much snow covered with just a few bare areas in between, so this was a good place to turn around. At this point I could hardly ride my bike due to the amount of elevation I gained from the trial head.


Heading back down.


The trail drops down the ridge in the center of the photo - gives ya an idea of the distance covered.


Despite being exhausted from the ride up and a puncture tire (2 holes within an inch of each other) this was a good trip and one of the few times I was able to get out to bike a trail this year.

If you were to drive this road 4-wheel drive is required.

Some of the photo's have blur marks on it since my old point shoot has some scratches on the lense.